A Ghost from the Past
by Snowtwo
Summary: How much do you recall of your journeys? Do you recall everyone you've met, all whose lives you have changed? One whose live has been changed decided to visit the Warrior of Light's home.


Thyme was enjoying one of the few, rare, peaceful moments of her life that she had now a days. Being the Warrior of Light she was often being whisked away to get involved in some major conflict. Be it helping to resolve the war between the Elezen and dragons, aiding a girl who claimed to be from a world called 'Vana'diel', expunging demons and vampires from haunted houses, ensuring the moogle mail was properly delivered, or whatever else, her life had become a huge bustle of late. Which was why now, sitting beside a small pond she had made herself in the back of her home in the Lavender Beds with her chocobo companion, Floofy Birdy, at her side was a very relaxing moment.

She had met Floofy several years ago now and he had become the closest thing she had to a reliable companion in battle. Sure, she had allies, friends, but they had only recently started assisting her directly when the going got tough. So as she reached up to pet Floofy's feathers and stroke his beak she gave a happy sigh as her feet dabbled in the pond.

"You know Floofy, when was the last time we really got some time off?" she asked him before stroking his beak. "I mean, really some time off? A few weeks ago it was telling stories to orphans and that should have been our time off."

"Wark!"

She smiled a bit as he quickly brought his beak up to peck her through her red hair in an affectionate manner.

"Hey! Not too hard, remember? I'm only half your size!" she said with a giggle before getting up and heading back to her home, her soak in the pond lacking something... important. Her home was a 'modest' one in that it was just a basic home layout without excess size, but she had gone to town in regards to filling it up. Just inside the door was a nice and heavy table with lace tablecloths and beautiful silverware and portraits lining the wall, all of which had been made by her or gifts. A counter behind which a stove rested? Handmade. A series of wind-chimes and emblems from the various armies? Gifts for her deeds.

As she walked down the hall she caught a glimpse of two portraits, one of a white-haired Elezen woman dressed in blue, Ysayle. She stopped for a moment looking at it. The woman was a heroine, like herself, though considered a heretic. Chosen by the mother crystal Hydaelyn to hold her echo Ysayle had become capable of transforming into the powerful primal of ice, Shiva. They had first met as enemies with Thyme seeking to root out heretics worshiping dragons and slay primals and Ysayle leading a group of heretics and being able to become one; but things had changed. In her heart Ysayle had wished for peace between dragons and all races and that had been the source of her power ultimately, at least in Thyme's eyes, and thusly, once the war finally reached a point where peace could be achieved, both women had quickly put aside their differences and had even become companions; one of the few Thyme felt truly trust-worthy.

The second was a young hyur girl, much like herself, except with brown hair instead of red, freckles, and the look of a small farm girl dressed in the linen robes of a novice healer. Quickly Thyme moved her hand away from the portrait as she moved on deeper into the home.

Passing by she moved on deeper into the home until she reached a small oven. Changing her clothes and attire into that of a chef's she slowly started to work, making herself a bowl of ice cream. Once done she started to head back out to the pond when a knock on the door came.

"Who is it?" she asked as she put the bowel down and headed towards the door. No response. Then another knock.

"If you're here about the Triple Triad tournament I told you I withdrew due to lack of time." she said as she reached the door. She grabbed the latch and pulled it open just in time to feel something hard, long, and cold slide into her stomach as the door opened.

Thyme was enjoying one of the few, rare, peaceful moments of her life that she had now a days. Being the Warrior of Light she was often being whisked away to get involved in some major conflict. Be it helping to resolve the war between the Elezen and dragons, aiding a girl who claimed to be from a world called 'Vana'diel', expunging demons and vampires from haunted houses, ensuring the moogle mail was properly delivered, or whatever else, her life had become a huge bustle of late. Which was why now, sitting beside a small pond she had made herself in the back of her home in the Lavender Beds with her chocobo companion, Floofy Birdy, at her side was a very relaxing moment.

She had met Floofy several years ago now and he had become the closest thing she had to a reliable companion in battle. Sure, she had allies, friends, but they had only recently started assisting her directly when the going got tough. So as she reached up to pet Floofy's feathers and stroke his beak she gave a happy sigh as her feet dabbled in the pond.

"You know Floofy, when was the last time we really got some time off?" she asked him before stroking his beak. "I mean, really some time off? A few weeks ago it was telling stories to orphans and that should have been our time off."

"Wark!"

She smiled a bit as he quickly brought his beak up to peck her through her red hair in an affectionate manner.

"Hey! Not too hard, remember? I'm only half your size!" she said with a giggle before getting up and heading back to her home, her soak in the pond lacking something... important. Her home was a 'modest' one in that it was just a basic home layout without excess size, but she had gone to town in regards to filling it up. Just inside the door was a nice and heavy table with lace tablecloths and beautiful silverware and portraits lining the wall, all of which had been made by her or gifts. A counter behind which a stove rested? Handmade. A series of wind-chimes and emblems from the various armies? Gifts for her deeds.

As she walked down the hall she caught a glimpse of two portraits, one of a white-haired Elezen woman dressed in blue, Ysayle. She stopped for a moment looking at it. The woman was a heroine, like herself, though considered a heretic. Chosen by the mother crystal Hydaelyn to hold her echo Ysayle had become...

...

Something was wrong. She had just had these thoughts. Quickly she darted forwards to the kitchen noting that it was empty, exactly as it should be. Floofy was outside, just as he should be, and everything seemed normal, but something was wrong. She could feel it ever so faintly. There had been no knock, there wouldn't be for several more minutes, there SHOULDN'T be one, but she wasn't going to risk it. If she was wrong, no harm no foul. If she was right...

Carefully she approached the door before reached forwards to touch the knob, almost as if it were covered in slime, before she quickly flung it open! Standing just outside was a young hyur girl, dressed in the linens of a novice conjurer, with long brown hair and freckles on her face.

"You're early." remarked the girl as she looked up at her with a broad, huge, unnatural smile on her face. "All the better though. Hello Warrior of Light. Now is the time to DIE!" cried out the girl as magical water formed up around her hands before blasting it forwards sending Thyme flying back down her hallway, knocking aside a multitude of things. Quickly Thyme sprung up to her feet as she jumped away, getting some distance, before she started to focus on the primal ether.

"Edda? What the hell are you doing here? I saw you fall off the edge into the... Damnit! Why are the bards always right?" she cursed as fire formed up around her hands. Edda raised up a staff as huge pieces of earth came to her side and shot down the hall, once, twice, thrice, as Thyme answered in kind with blasts of flame, once, twice, and thrice! Wind shot down the way, launched from Edda, but Thyme knew it well to be no natural wind but the slicing blades of an Aero spell. Green wind burst forth surrounding her as her arms came up to protect herself, feeling the lacerating cuts all over her body; but she wasn't some frail being.

"Cure!" she called out as she felt the regenerative energy flow through her body, knitting together the cuts as the restorative energy of the land answered her call. Quickly she held out her arms to her side.

"OL BOLAPE A NOCO DE HYDAELYN"

Fire and ice in kind formed up around her hands, coursing over them as flames started to lick up her arms and ice freeze over her wrists.

"EN DOOAIN BOLAPE PAGE OD VICTORY"

Sparks of thunder joined the twins of flame and frost, darting too and fro over her body as golden circles formed around her wrists and above her head.

"Yesss... Come Servant of Hydaelyn! Show me what you have! Let it be wondrous!" called out Edda as she spread her own arms wide and the smile growing beyond what any mortal could attain.

"OLAPIRETA PI BOLAPE TURBS MAY PI SHINE THROUGH OL!"

Thyme's eyes shot wide open as she raised both her hands up high into the air. "ASTRAL FIRE!" she cried out at the top of her lungs as a mighty plume of flame, as if reaped from the stars themselves, bellowed down the hallway towards Edda!

Thyme gasped for air. She could feel the knife in her belly and see the blood on the ground, her blood, slowly pooling.

"Come now Warrior of Light, are you so frail as to be defeated in one blow?" came a female voice. Thyme didn't need to look up to know who it was. "Edda. No... Whatever the hell you are... GET AWAY FROM ME!" she cried out as she reached into a small satchel at her side, searching for a small gem into which her power as a black mage was stored, yet her fingers could not find it. No matter. She grabbed the next best thing.

"Class change: Summoner!" she cried out as the smock and chef's knife seemed to melt into liquid light as the gem in her fingers glowed a brilliant white light. It hovered before her as light suddenly burst forth from Thyme's own body and seemed to lace up around her, forming into the garb and weapon of a summoner.

"A summoner now?" asked Edda. "You wish to dash this girls dreams?"

"Hey! Miss!"

Thyme looked over towards the entrance to the local inn, still nursing a bad wound or two from clearing the dungeon. A young girl dressed in the linens of a novice conjurer came rushing forwards, waving her hands. Thyme remembered her as the healer of the unlucky group she had seen right outside of the dungeon. Things... had not gone well. She had been lacking in skill, their party having to fall back on potions, and their warrior... Thyme had not seen the full scene but the group had been short one member and this girl had been hunched over, carrying something the same size as a human head, and had been bawling her eyes out when Thyme had arrived.

"Hey! I... I've heard of what you did back there in the dungeon. How... How... you managed to beat those things. I just wanted to let you know, I messed up big time in there. It cost me something dear to me that I can never reclaim. But after hearing what you did, I've decided. I'm going back to the basics, working and training harder to become a better conjurer. Who knows? If I get good enough I can heal you one day!"

"Ummm... Okay? What's your name girl?"

"Edda."

"I don't care what you think fiend! I know full-well what you are!" hissed Thyme as she cast a cure spell on herself before reaching out with her mind. The primal forces of the world were dangerous. Even to those, like Ysalye, who knew their touch it was far too easy to be swept up in their flow, but it was possible to tap into their power in only small amounts. She knew which power she needed. She knew its name.

Garuda.

The mistress of wind. She called upon it, forming it up into a small being beside her, an effigy.

"What am I then?" said Edda as she raised her hand up.

"Voidsent. A monster that inhabits the bodies of others, twisting and warping them to its whim. Your kind tried to take my master. You shall now feel my wrath! Garuda, get some contagion's on her. Time for some poison!" commanded Thyme as she focused on conjuring up the sickening, destructive, miasma's to sap away at the voidsent's strength.

"Fire!" called out Edda as a blast of flame shot forth from her staff, slamming hard into Thyme's body.

"What the hell?" cried out Thyme as the flames struck her, but she quickly patted them off. She had felt fire plenty of times before, but the sudden follow-up of both ice and thunder impacting her sent her flying back into a wall. Conjurer's couldn't tap into that kind of magic!

"Now you're really ****ing me off!" cried out Thyme as she jumped upright, her mind reaching well past the 'normal' safe limits as she watched her effigy attack Edda, only for the latter to laugh it off. Thyme wanted more power. She wanted this thing to be DEAD! She tapped into that might that had sundered the land itself. She felt the primal energy flowing through her, might beyond what was safe, as she raised her hands up to point to Edda.

"Flare!"

Thyme collapsed on the ground, clad in nothing but her undergarb, as Edda stood at the opposite end of the hallway, two gems in her hand. Thyme remembered having just cast Astral Fire, but also having just cast Mega-Flare, and she could even see the tiny effigy of Garuda hovering off on the side, casting furiously away but to seemingly no effect.

"How did you... That's not possible."

"Black Mage, Summoner, which shall you offer to me next? Scholar? Paladin? Monk? Wail on this body all you want all that you'll do to me..."

Edda's face suddenly changed and shifted, becoming pale, almost deathly, and far more human in appearence before letting out a painful wail. A wail Thyme knew well as being set on fire and blasted with the primal forces. Then, suddenly, she hushed up.

"Is hurt her more."

Okay. Time to think. This thing had taken two gems from her. It seemed that calling upon power was what it desired, but that wasn't the problem. She could call on force all she wanted and could even bring down the most powerful thing possible, but then things would instantly change. It was almost certainly an illusion, one meant to keep her off balance, but what was going on? Soul Gems couldn't just be taken. Only certain people could even touch them and they were often attuned to one person. Yet why hadn't this thing killed her when it had the chance back at the start? In between the illusions? A cheap shot, yes, but it would get the whole satchel. Unless...

Wait. Garuda was still here and attacking Edda? That wasn't possible. It should have vanished the moment she lost the gem.

Thyme knew exactly what she needed. Her hand darted into her pouch to grab a smooth white gem in the shape of an egg as she transformed again. She didn't say anything, there was no need to do something so extravagant as that, as the soft white robes with a triangle red trim and a smooth white staff with a marbled head formed up.

Light flowed into the staff as she calmly raised it overhead, sending it flying upwards.

"Holy."

Brilliant light flared forwards as Edda stumbled backwards, a twisted and warped, demonic, form coming forth from her backside, stumbling backwards, clutching its eyes in pain, as the pure light wounded it. Both had been illusions. She wasn't sure when, she suspected when she had first opened the door, but the voidsent had tried to manipulate her mind.

"You foul girl! I'll strip the flesh from your bone!" hissed out the voidsent as it raised its hands up, sending fire and ice her way. Thyme stood still, not trying to dodge, as she raised the staff up and life flowed through her body, pulsating through her, renewing her.

"You're just a white mage! A WHITE MAGE! Pitiful! Weak! I hold both of your most powerful gems now! You can't stand against me!" it screamed out before trying to call up upon the power of the primals in the form of shadowy flame. The ground turned a sickly black underfoot. Like lightning Thyme sprinted away as she made a small circle with her staff and earth formed up around her before shooting forwards to impact into the voidsent.

"I am the White Mage. I don't use this gem much because it's not my style but..."

The voidsent shot a spear of ice towards Thyme. Quickly Thyme focused on her body, hardening it, petrifying pieces of it, turning them to stone before she grabbed the spear out of midair and flung it aside, sending it clattering to the ground. A move like that was draining, but the voidsent didn't need to know that.

"My spells are mostly healing. My power is mostly in tune with nature. Yet, in this form, I have stood up to Nidhogg himself. And won. With nothing more than pebbles, hot air, and my own tears as weapons. No flames, no primal power, just healing. And won. There will be only one outcome."

Thyme quickly spun around as light pulsated from her staff, keeping it low to the ground, as a powerful wave of energy shot forth causing the ground to burst into flowering life while scourging the unclean from this world.

Thyme rushed down to the final area of the deepcroft. The wedding invite had been as bad as she had feared. A wedding between a girl and a dead man, with only three invites sent out? Two to Edda's former companions and the third to herself, and in such a foul and twisted place? The outcome was blatant. She knew what lay ahead, but she didn't come in her Black Mage form or her Summoner form or any other. Instead...

"Edda. Please. Stop this." said Thyme. She hadn't seen the girl since that day so long ago, but the girl was clearly different. Warped. She suspected that she had not studied to become a conjurer and, instead, been seized by the void. So she had come as a White Mage, the pinnacle of the conjurer, hoping to break through to her.

The girl turned to her, her body clearly moving in an unnatural manner.

"What you're dealing with, bringing back the dead, it can't be done. Not really. Whatever it offered you, look! You're husband isn't some natural being but a giant! His head is almost as big as you are! It doesn't care about you. It just wants to use you to accomplish its ends in this world! Please, Edda, listen..."

"Please, Edda, listen." said Thyme, extending her hand towards the girl and voidsent. "Hear my voice, I am Thyme. I am the Warrior of Light. The woman who inspired you to keep going."

"Thyme?" said Edda quickly before, suddenly, a massive blast of flame, came forth from her hands. Edda rose up, her hands spread wide, as it tried to focus.

"OL BOLAPE A NOCO DE HYDAELYN! KYAAAAAAA!" it screeched outas the fire and ice tried for form up only to suddenly shatter and be burst apart.

"You are no servant of Hydaelyn. Her will is not yours." said Thyme as she calmly walked forwards towards the screaming girl.

"Those words... they weren't words of magic?" hissed the voidsent. "No matter! Garuda! Heed my call and come to me!" it cried out as it raised its hands up high... and nothing happened at all.

"She will not come. It was I who bested her and not you. Not that it matters. The primal forces of this world are beyond those whom come from the void." said Thyme as she placed her hand on Edda's shoulder.

A long, sharp, cold pain filled Thyme's belly as Edda pulled the knife and stabbed it into Thyme's gut, but it did not seem to matter as healing energy filled the air, knitting together the wound and healing her faster than it could call form damage.

"If only you had paid attention to Edda and her abilities as a conjurer, you would have know that, facing a White Mage at the pinnacle of her power... You were ****ed."

The forces of nature flowed through her body as spell after spell came forth from Thyme in rapid succession. The winds headed her call and tore into the voidsent as the earth pummeled it and the waters of the world sought to drown it out. Holy light pulsated forwards again and, no matter how many times it tried to cast a spell to hurt Thyme, a quick heal was all she needed.

A few moments later Edda slumped down as the voidsent dispursed. Thyme could finally feel the girl in her non-possessed form, and knew the truth. There was no pulse.

"I... I'm so sorry." said Edda, her body surviving only off the ambient healing magic. "I tried to become better and it promised me it would do that. If I just let it help, I could become strong, like you. I'm so sorry Thyme. I... didn't even know... what I was doing. I was such a fool."

Thyme said nothing. She didn't know what to say. She wasn't some sage of wisdom or reassurance.

"If... Maybe... we're not all... capable of... being heroes." muttered out Edda as the life started to flicker from her eyes. "I bet you... didn't... even... remember me."

With that the ambient healing magic was spent and Edda's body slumped to the ground, lifeless.

"I did."


End file.
